


Treacherous

by TheShipofHope



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Bad Boy Harry, Crossover, Daemon world, M/M, inspired by His Dark Matters/The Golden compass, wall-flower Louis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-29 03:09:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1000165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShipofHope/pseuds/TheShipofHope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis was just a wall-flower trying to stay under the radar. So when he moved to America, he expected his days to be filled with hanging out with his new friend Niall and worrying about his daemon's condition of being not settled yet. In no way had he expected to meet an intriguing Harry with leopard daemon, leather jacket and too many secrets for his own good.</p><p>a His Dark Matters crossover</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Idea of daemons was invented by Philip Pullman, so this story is basically a crossover between One Direction and His Dark Materials. This story was inspired by a sterek fanfiction: Cross My Soul by Ecarian. Inspired, definitely not copied! So basically I took the Daemon idea over. But you still should check it out!
> 
> Also usual disclaimer for all fanfiction. I do not own anyone of One Direction. Please respect the fourth wall. I do not claim to know them and definitely not claim to know their personalities. I'm 99,9999% sure that they dont act the same as in this story.
> 
> *  
> ! IMPORTANT !
> 
> What are daemons? for those who don't know the books/film
> 
> Daemons are basically the human soul outside of its body, but not exactly like that. They take the shape of an animal, have their own consciousness and personality (similar to its human personality, basically what they'd act if they were completely theirselves and brave enough to do so.) Daemons are linked to their humans like some kind of necessary organ, but separated from their body and more important. So if one of them dies, the other dies quickly fast too, if a daemon gets hurt, the human feels it 20 times more. Daemons mostly cant be too far away from the human.
> 
> Children's daemons usually change shape until they reach puberty (they're always animals though) and eventually settle as the animal most similar to the personality of the human. But they can only settle if a person feels comfortable enough, if the human has a place to call home, etc...
> 
>    
> Daemons don't really talk to other humans unless they're very close, in that case the person's daemon's can even touch each other. Youd never just extend to touch someone else's daemon out of the blue. Unless you trust someone a lot lot lot, and have a very steady and good relationship with him. Only then do some couples touch each other's daemons. But basically, it's just taboo, because it's your soul that would get touched by antohter human.
> 
> Daemons are usually the opposite sex, but like every rule there are rare exceptions without a pattern. Sexuality, siblings, eductation etc have no relation to it.

The first time Louis noticed those light green eyes watching, he was walking home after his first day in his new school, a week after his family had moved and only five hours after meeting Niall who was about to become his best friend.

Fortunately the April sun was shining brightly in the sky, leaving no chance for the senior to be completely drenched when he would finally arrive home. His daemon had made use of the opportunity to shift into a mouse, absorbing the light of the sun while lying in a nest of Louis' hair. He too was enjoying the warmth on his skin. With Siara napping on top of his head, he got bored quickly so he put his headphone and started silently singing along with The Fray. Those guys always managed to brighten his day even more.

While 'The Fighter' was blasting in his ears, Louis passed by two lads lying on the grass, a shining black motorcycle right beside them. Although they looked like the crowd who would skip most of the time, Louis vaguely recognized their faces from school. They probably shared one or two classes.  

After all they hadn't really a 'wallflower' kind appearance and they were the only one of his school who lived in 'the bad side' of the city, as everyone liked to call it, but apparently still had enough money to afford a place in Louis' private school.

The tanned one had his eyes closed, a burning cigarette hanging loosely in his mound and his leather jacket zipped open so you could clearly see his abs through the material of the white school shirt. The other one -the one with a small leopard on his belly- was supporting himself on his elbows, his tie loosely hanging around his neck. Through squinted eyes, the lad was watching Louis walk by. What mostly had caught Louis' attention, setting his eyes out, was not just their pretty colour, but the gloom surrounding them.

Siara opened her eyes and hunched over to get a better look of what Louis was staring at.

"He's surely pretty and he seems to have mystery surrounding him. His daemon is pretty too. I can see why you're affected by him," she quipped, tripling down to Louis' shoulder.

"Quiet, you dork," Louis hissed, "And he doesn't affect me." He hated how she could almost read his mind these days, the moving bringing them even closer together. If that was even possible.

Their hushed conversation made the lad eventually notice Louis and after a curious glance back, he smirked, giving the boy a cocky wink. His daemon didn't bat an eye.

In response, the colour of Louis' cheeks turned into a bright shade of red, so he broke eye contact. The instant change of emotion made Siara shift into a ferret, almost falling off Louis' shoulder. Damn, now mystery-boy had noticed his odd 'situation'. 

Embarrassed, the boy quickened his pace, not turning his head again. He didn't want to make it even worse.

"Oh, no, He doesn't affect you. Not at all," Siara mocked, rolling her eyes.

Louis eventually arrived in a record time at home, all the while thinking back about beautiful, emerald eyes and chocolate curls.

 

*

 

The second time the two of them crossed pads happened to be in one of the hallways at school. 

Louis and Niall were walking through the hallway on their way to lunch as Louis noticed he'd forgotten his lunch money in his locker, not used to having to bring it yet. Blame the differences between America and Europe.

“Fuck Niall, I forgot my lunch money in my locker.” He groaned, “Save me a spot please, I’m going to fetch it.” He told his hungry friend and he started his way back, Siara dabbling next to him.

The moment he turned around the corner, Louis found both guys from last time standing practically next to his locker. The tanned lad had a kid harshly pushed up by his collar against the wall, his pigeon making angry eyes at the boy's labrador. Glaring in the kid's own wide eyes, the lad lifted his other arm in preparation to throw a punch. Just when he wanted to hit the kid, his curly-haired friend extended his own hand to carefully stop him. 'Curly' whispered some seemingly soothing words in his ear shell and eventually the first guy lowered slowly his arm, a scowl present on his face. However, he didn't let go of the kid completely before spitting in his eyes first, but then finally the hand that was holding the boy against the locker, let go. Fear was written all over the boy's face as he didn't dare to leave yet.

"You're lucky Harry's here to stop me kiddo. I'll let you go this time, but next time you probably won't be this lucky," the lad took a step back and added with a gesture of his head, "Now go!"

He didn't need to say that twice, the sophomore instantly burst at lightning speed through the hallway without looking back once, his dog even faster. It wasn't until then, as the two lads watched the kid leave, that they also took note of their one-man-audience consisting of Louis. (and Siara ofcourse, whom had proudly managed to stay a ferret.)

Green eyes met blue for the second time then and Harry's mouth formed a smirk very similar to the one of last time as he purred, "Liked the show, pixie boy?"

Taken aback by the question and the odd choice of nickname, Louis nor Siara could respond. The flustered boy blinked a couple of time without averting his gaze, not unlike a deer in headlights, but that just added to the other lad's amusement. Harry's smirk grew wider, revealing straight, white teeth and he gave a wink in Louis' direction, "Come on Zayn, let's go."

In a whirl of black leather and skinny jeans, the two and their daemons eventually left the hall.

"Well, they're definitely something," Siara eventually said.

It was needless to say that Louis didn't eat lunch that day.

*

The flickering lights were slightly beginning to give Louis a head ache, Siara's ears lying flat down. He had only been at this party for an hour and he'd already lost Niall in the crowd and gotten bothered twice by a very drunk girl, Eleanor, and her peacock, who apparently couldn't take a hint. In other words, Louis was having a fucking amazing time.

Alright, maybe the Eleanor-situation was a little bit his own fault as he wasn't 'out and proud' yet at school, but that was only because no one had bothered to ask him about his sexuality yet (and maybe secretly a bit because there was a chance that he, as a wall-flower, would get noticed in the wrong way. He had heard stories about gay people in America and, well, Louis actually wanted to get home bruise-free every day, thank you very much.)

With a last gulp, he emptied his second  beer of the night and he let the cup fall down, hitting the floor with a small thumb. Louis decided against getting another drink as he didn't feel like getting drunk. That was Niall's job after all so at least one of them should stay sober.

Suddenly the room felt too crowded, the sweating bodies and loud bass almost claustrophobic. He condemned Niall that he'd dragged him here, saying that Liam was a good guy and Louis should socialize a bit more, but after a couple of minutes Niall had completely abandoned his friend, leaving him all by himself in the too cramped room.

"Let's get out of here," Siara whispered in his ear. He felt her urge to shift again, but here between all his peers she couldn't. Not of Louis wanted to keep their situation a secret. Not if he didn't want others to make fun of him.

So he decided to not spend any second longer in his lonely corner and made his way over to get some air outside. The movies really made American high school parties seem so much more fun.

After pushing a snogging couple shamelessly out of the door frame, he finally arrived at the front yard. Breathing in and out the fresh spring air, he walked in a random direction, away from the loud music. The air filled his longs. A smiled broke through face and Siara's now deer-ears twitched in relieve.

Well, if he himself didn't quite have a good time, Louis hoped that at least Niall was enjoying himself back inside. He wondered if he should stay near his friend, but then figured that if Niall wanted to go home, he'd probably text Louis. And besides, he'd probably be occupied for at least another couple of hours. After losing his virginity to a Finnish exchange student last month, Niall had assured Louis that this would be the night that he would get all the way with that Veronica from his bio class.

Absently chatting with his daemon, Louis hadn't noticed himself wandering too far from Liam's house and found himself in the more poor side of the city. Instead of big, suburban houses, there were damaged and dirty buildings surrounding him, trash and cigarette butts thrown everywhere.

Still not acknowledging the change of background, Louis and Siara drifted into a small alley way, unaware of a couple of dangerous looking blokes subtly following him.

It wasn't until his way got blocked by a brick wall that Louis finally took note of the change of surrounding, wondering how he'd gotten there. Surprised by his destination, he swiftly turned around to make his way back only to be stopped by a broad skinhead who was at least five inches taller.

Siara immediately shifted into an ant and hid herself in between the locks of Louis' hair. He jumped bewildered to the side, this way colliding almost in another body. This lad was even bigger than the first, towering over Louis with half long red hair tucked behind his ears and a demonic smile directed at the small boy in front of him. His pig-daemon evily snorting next to him.

Turning his head in every direction, trying to spot a way out, Louis noticed two more guys on his right side, both plastered with tattoos and snake daemons, looking like they'd just escaped out of prison. Fear was written in Louis' eyes as he took tiny steps backwards, the only open spot. A strong hand grabbed his left arm in response.

"Not so fast, pretty boy. We just want to play a game. Right lads?" The other three men nodded greedily.

With a harsh tug, Louis freed his arm, "Lea- leave me alone." he stuttered. His voice croaked and sounded less firmly than he had intended it to.

"Oh, this one's a bit feisty," the ginger grinned, baring his crooked teeth, "I like it."

"Yes, I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun with you tonight," the first one cooed.

The four guys were currently slowly approaching, with every step getting even closer to Louis who stumbled backwards in return, until he eventually got stopped by the brick wall hitting his back.

"You're all ours now," The skinhead extended his arm to cup Louis' jaw with his filthy hand. The scared boy closed his eyes in fear, not wanting to meet his gaze.

"He's very pretty, this one," he muttered, "Can't wait till we see him cry, till we've ruined his innocent soul."

"Yeah," another one with acknowledged, opening his mouth for the first time that evening, "Probably a virgin too."

"Well, he won't be one anymore when we'll be done with him," the skinhead smirked, making the others chuckle darkly. The guy dragged his index finger over Louis' jaw, ending on his collarbones.

"No, p- please!" Louis screamed, finally finding his voice back, though it still trembled noticeably. His mouth was soon muffled by a greasy hand either way.

The skinhead tutted, "Oh pretty boy, don't you know that bad boys get punished?"

"Let us go!" Siara chipped, now a chimp with arms around her boy's neck. The blokes didn't seem to have notice her metamorphosis.

Just as a fistful of Louis' shirt got grabbed by the skinhead, a bright, wide light blinded them accompanied by the sound of a motorcycle entering the alleyway.

The four guys turned around as the motorcycle made a sudden stop right in front of them and another lad jumped off. The light of the vehicle was still shining in Louis eyes so he couldn't see anything but a tall, black figure with a feline daemon, currently taking his helmet off.

"What's happening here?" Louis heard a hoarse, but familiar voice ask.

"Oh, nothing styles. We were just fooling around with this twink."

The blokes formed a half circle in front of Louis, trying to block the view, but the motor rider still could peek through an open spot and instantly recognized Louis, who in return dropped his head down, not wanting to look any longer at the curly haired boy that had been constantly present in his thoughts and dreams lately.

In less than a second after seeing the blue eyed boy behind the blokes, Harry's mood changed drastically from a careful curiosity to a burning fury.

"Leave him alone!" Harry growled, his eyes almost spitting fire.

"But Styles, we-" one of the lads extended his arm in Louis' direction, ready to grab the boy's arm. His actions were however immediately were stopped by an even angrier Harry.

"Don't touch him," he spat, "And I don't need your bloody excuses. Get the fuck out of here!"

"Oh come on Styles," The cow-hybrid started, his hands held open in front of him as a sign of peace, a symbolic white flag.

"What didn't you understand in _get the fuck out of here_?" Harry retorted quickly, "I wouldn't challenge me, if I were you. Or do you want me to tell him that you're all neglecting your duties here?" He snapped. His leopard hissed, baring her sharp teeth.

The men all paled, but Harry continued his threats, "I could also tell him what you guys were doing Thursday instead of work and you know he trusts me more than you cattle."

"What? You know?" The shortest of the men asked startled, his snake daemon curling around his body. Harry then directed his eyes, filled with hate, to this person.

"Of course I know, Anderson. How dumb and naive do you think I am? Now leave before I do something smart and set you all on fire."

That seemed to be the cue for the four older blokes to leave. Terrified of the curly haired, they hurried away, not once looking back.

Harry kept watching them, a scowl on his face, until they were completely out of sight. He then shifted his gaze to the trembling boy in front of him. Every sign of hatred drained from his face, his eyes softening at the heartbreaking sight in front of him.

Louis had his arms folded around Siara, a thight embrace. His nails were almost digging holes in his own elbows because of his strong hold and he shivered noticeable. Every now and then his nose would hop up as he sniffed, trying to hold his tears. His lower lip bleeding from the teeth that were planted into it and his fringe was lying flatly in front of his left eye.

Trying not to scare the lad even more, Harry carefully took a step in Louis' direction, which caused an instant reaction from said boy. His deerlike eyes, spread wide open, analysing every move Harry made. The latter guy was at least glad that they weren't filled with fear anymore. His daemon changed, suddenly a ferret, surprising Harry. He decided not to comment on it. There would supposedly be a good reason as for why Louis' hadn't settled yet. It would be only rude to ask him about it, especially now.

"Hey Louis, are you alright," He softly inquired, while taking another step, making the space between them smaller.

Louis' eyes shot up, "How do you know my name?" He then looked back to the ground, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt and added with more quiet but scowling voice, "Why do you even care?"

Louis' non-hostile behaviour made Harry relax in relief. He wanted to tell the boy that of course he cared, but as Louis shook from another heavy shiver, Harry noticed that he was only wearing a T-shirt. Louis had forgotten his jacket at the party.

"You're cold," Harry stated, "You're probably in shock, so we shouldn't let your body temperature drop too much. Here have my jacket."

Louis didn't answer so the curly haired lad took that as a good response, chucking his leather jacket of his shoulders and then draping it over Louis', carefully avoiding touching his daemon. With this he had finally closed the remaining space between them. Now Harry arms were bare, the patterns and words that were tattooed on his body were revealed. A pair of birds was peaking under the collar of his shirt. How odd to see a person with a feline-daemon and bird tattoos.

An awkward silence fell over the two lads. Harry put his hands back in the pockets of his skinny jeans and cleared his throat.

"Maybe we should get going," Harry absently started to swing back and for on his heels, his leopard walking eight-figures in between his legs. Louis didn't really give a response, except for a shrug of his shoulders. He was still trying to avoid Harry's gaze, examining the ground instead.

"Yes, we should," The curly haired lad answered himself and started to walk to his motorcycle, "I'll drive you back."

As he noticed that Louis in fact didn’t tag along, he turned back and gently took hold of the boy's wrist, tugging him with him when he made his way back. Again, Louis didn't flinch or made an attempt to free his wrist, something he'd done to the other guys, so Harry counted that as a personal victory of winning Louis' trust. It meant that Louis was willingly following Harry to his bike.

"Put this on," Harry demanded while giving Louis his helmet. The latter accepted although his face revealed his confusion.

"I'm going to drive you home. Make sure you're safe and such," he explained, zipping Louis' -well technically Harry's- jacket up to make sure he would stay warm. Driving, or in his case sitting, on a motorcycle could get chilly.

"But- I- You don't need to. I should just get back actually, so. Uh, thank you for everything, but I'll just go now, bye!" Louis shook his head like he wanted to convince himself of his words and tried to give the helmet back, which the curly haired lad of course didn't accept. Harry folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Louis, I'm not letting you wander here on your own again. This place isn't safe! you've just experienced first hand what could happen."

Louis still didn't seem convinced, suspiciously eyeing the black vehicle. Harry sighed, "Don't worry I'm not abducting you or something, just bringing you home 'kay?"

This seemed to do the trick as Louis started to slowly put the helmet on. Harry softly smiled and helped him doing so. He then climbed on the motor with his little leopard on his lap, starting the engine and sensed Louis doing the same, although still in a kind of shy and wary way.

"Come on, Pixie boy, hold on tight. We don't want you to fall off halfway the trip, do we?"

"Don't call me that," Louis scoffed, but he tentatively placed his arms around Harry's waist in a loose embrace.

"Why? It suits you," smirked Harry and he put his foot on the gas pedal, ready to take off. The motor groaned beneath them as it came to life and, with a loud roar, the two took off in the night.

Louis had to grab Harry's waist tighter as the vehicle gained speed, making sure he wouldn't fall off. Siara had her eyes closed shut and had managed to get inside the jacket. The cold wind whistled past their ears, making Louis bury his head in the curly haired boy's shirt without him and Siara touching of course. the boy couldn't help but inhale Harry's scent, noticing that he smelled real good, comforting in fact.

Not even fifteen minutes later, Harry stopped in front of a white mansion: Louis' house. The blue eyed boy couldn't remember telling him where he lived, but he should have done, because otherwise they wouldn't be here at this moment, right?

"I think I'm sick," Louis uttered as he felt nauseous after the ride.

The hybrid crawled tentatively off the motorcycle, but before he knew it, he found himself on his ass on the ground. The dizziness had been worse than he had anticipated it to be. Harry chuckled as Louis tried to get up again, but failed miserably, reminding him of a deer on ice. After a few amusing, failed attempts, the lad decided to help him and extended his hand for Louis to hold on, all the time his leopard chuckling. It got rewarded by a dirty look of Louis' own daemon.

The smaller lad took it greedily, still embarrassed that he had fallen down, and instantly took in that Harry's hand was almost twice as big as his own. A fact that he shouldn't enjoy as much as he did. Long fingers wrapped around his palm and caused a small shock of electricity, leaving a pleasant feeling in Louis hand after the other lad finally let go.

As he put Harry's helmet off, he saw the other lad typing something on a phone. Wait, the object in Harry's hand suspiciously resembled Louis' own phone.  

He searched his right pocket, where Louis had thought he had put his phone before, but was met with nothing but an empty gum packet.

"Is that my phone?"

"Yes, I'm putting my number in it," was Harry's casual answer.

Louis couldn't remember giving it or seeing Harry take it from his pocket. Wow, Louis really had some holes in his memories. From now on Louis shouldn't drink anything anymore, if he already acted like this from those two beers at the party. After a vibrating tone inside one of Harry's pockets, meaning that he had tried to call himself, the lad decided to give back the device.

"Here," Harry spoke up as he traded Louis' phone for his own helmet.

They were quiet for a bit, both waiting for the other to speak up.

"Just thank him, Lou," Siara whispered in his ear.

"Thanks for, uhm, bringing me home and stuff," Louis suddenly felt even more shy. He started to play with the ends of the sleeves of the jacket, which reminded him that he still had to return it to its rightful owner.

As he started to shrug it off, Harry interrupted him, "Oh, no. You can keep it. It's probably chilly tomorrow morning and I have a feeling that you've lost your own jacket somewhere else," he put his helmet on.

"I should get going. Louis, please stay away from that neighborhood next time. And if anything like that ever happens again, don't hesitate to contact me. You have my number."

Louis didn't know what to respond, so he just nodded.

"Come on Nox," Harry called before making his way over to his vehicle.

"Bye Siara," Harry's daemon suddenly purred, shamelessly talking to Louis' own daemon even though they'd only just met. She then jumped onto the bike like nothing had happened at all.

It left the two startled, but Harry didn't seem to mind only giving his leopard a soft smile.

"Uh, bye!" Siara responded in the end.

"Sweet dreams, pixie boy. I'll see you later," Harry winked for a last time and then drove away, not hearing the soft _Don't call me that_ from Louis. 

The blue eyed boy then made his way to the three next to his bedroom window and started to sneak in, after all his mother had no idea that he had been gone that night.

 

*

 

Louis was walking around school with Siara curled around his neck and Harry's jacket neatly folded up in his bag. Normally he would never fold up pieces of clothing, or be this neat in general, but he wouldn't dare to give the jacket back if it wasn't in perfect state. That was, if he could finally find Harry to give the jacket back, having not spotted any sign of the boy lately.

Louis only had caught a glance of dark brown curls and a cheetah tail in the hallway that morning, so he had decided to use his break to great purpose to finally search the lad and give his jacket back. He actually didn't really want to give it back, it smelled just too good, but unfortunately Louis was a sincere, polite boy who didn't steal pretty, mysterious boy's jackets. Unfortunately.

He had been looking for a while now, his break almost over, but he still didn't want to text as he didn't really know what to say. And he didn't know if Harry even had saved his own number, hell, maybe the lad had forgotten all about him. So no, no texting, that would be much too awkward for Louis' own good. Besides, he actually wanted to see his handsome saviour back, if he was real honest.

Louis almost thought about giving up, if it weren't for his daemon whispering encouraging words in his ear, "you'll find him," "just look a little longer," until he finally spotted the lad sitting near his motorbike. (Louis should've known to look for him there in the first place. Why did he even stop in the library?)

Unsurprisingly enough, the lad and his best friend were surrounded by a crowd of good-looking girls, hence why Louis had overlooked them in the first place. But what did surprise Louis was the fact that oddly enough they weren't giving the girls the attention that they obviously craved, most of the time just talking to each other until they would be interrupted once again by one of their admirers.

Still, seeing him like this, Louis would never believe that it was the same lad who had helped him get away from those disgusting blokes who'd wanted to rape him. Louis is still grateful every day for Harry's help. Hell, if it weren't for the lad only wearing a black T-shirt, leather jacket obviously tucked away in Louis' own bag, Louis wouldn't trust his own memories to be true. But it was, and Louis had to return it. Now. Yes, he really had to.

"Come on, Lou. Don't be a coward. Just go!" his daemon spoke up. How was it that Siara was at least ten times more brave then him? Shouldn't daemons and their owners kind of have the same personality? Weren't daemons the 'mirrors of their soul'? But then, Siara had always been an odd one, not even afraid to speak to other humans even if they didn't know them that much, but that was just the way she was. Brave and bold. Basically everything Louis wished for to be.

After a couple of other inspiring, even flattering whispers in his ear from his favourite creature, Louis gathered all his courage together and decided to just take a shot. After all, what could go wrong?

Apparently a lot could go wrong.

He was only a couple of steps away from him, currently only blocked by a girl standing in his way, and although his leopard was blatantly staring at him, Harry hadn't given him any attention but a quick glance. Clearing his throat, Louis decided to just go for it.

"Harry?" he spoke up softly.

Nothing changed, even though he was sure that at least the girl must've heard him, they all continued their chat.

"Uhm, Harry?" He repeated louder this time.

It worked. The girl turned around with a dirty scowl to see who had been so rude to interrupt them, disgust radiating of her mini-hippo daemon's eyes. Harry's expression wasn't much better either. His eyes were emotionless, his jaw stiff.

Louis had never seen Harry looking at him like that before, almost not recognising him like this. He already regretted his arrival, but it was too late to change his mind now, too late to flee.

"Why do you even interrupt us? Do I know you?" Harry spoke up, voice deep and hoarse and, most importantly, empty. Not even a bit like the warm tone he had used with Louis the last time they had been together. Instead iit was cold and harsh. Was this a different person or was Harry really this bipolar?

"Uhm?" Louis stammered, completely taken aback by Harry's lack of recognition. Why did he say such things, when last time he wasn't anything but a sweet, caring person?

Siara was the first one to fall out of their daze and then she did something that surprised everyone. She had even made the other girls and Zayn quit their conversation to gape at her.

"Listen here, you fucking ass-" she cried out, eyes flaming out of fury. She didn't come any further than that because someone had shut her up. Louis had clamped his hand over her mouth, making sure she wouldn't say anything else.

The others were all quiet now, all with their mouths fallen open, eyes spread wide and attention on the bold daemon. Because no, it wasn't normal for daemons to speak up and talk to strangers, even less normal to use such harsh words, to be frankly rude. Louis' face turned an alarming hue of red and, with his hand still hushing his daemon, he took off in a hurry, not wanting to spend a single second longer there.

If he would've turned around to take a last glance, he would've seen Harry's own daemon hissing at Harry, which was, well, maybe even stranger than Siara's behaviour.

"What an absolute asshole!" Siara snarled, tripling over Louis' neck to sit on his shoulder.

"I know," Louis agreed as fury boiled inside of him.

"Acting like a caring, sweet shit the other day and now making a complete fool of you! He just has no shame."

"I know!"

"But don't think we'll try to give his jacket back again now, he can just freeze to death. What a bloody tosser! Wanker! Bellend!"

"I know," Louis agreed again.

The two were quiet for a few beats, as their anger made place for worse feelings, letting the humiliation and, more importantly, the disappointment come through.

"Well," Siara said softly, "we don't need people like that, all we need is the two of us. And in the end it's nothing new, right? The only one you can trust is yourself. Everyone fucks you over one way or another."

"I know..." Louis sighed, but he still had secretly been hoping that Harry had been different. That Harry had been better.

 

*

 

It was a Sunday afternoon and almost every Sunday Louis spent his afternoon reading in the local coffee shop. Well, he actually never ordered coffee as he was more of a tea person, but you get the idea.

And even though lots of people would consider it a rather geeky habit, Louis still enjoyed every aspect of it. The distant chatter of unknown people, all with other own hopes, dreams and back story; and the sounds of the coffee machines were the perfect background noise for Louis to read peacefully and calm without the lonely feeling one could get by sitting by himself in his room. And most importantly, without Siara's usual banter as she often took the opportunity to doze off in his lap.

This particular Sunday Louis decided to reread The picture of Dorian Gray of Oscar Wilde again. It was one of his all-time favourite books and every time he experienced the story, Louis couldn't help but admire the 19th century author even more.

The large clock arrow on his watch neared the number five, his cup almost empty. Normally this was his cue to order another one. However at this moment he was too occupied by the world of the angelic beauty that was Dorian Gray to even think of eating. His focused attention made him also unaware of the new presence of another person. He kept reading when the chair in front of him was pushed back and kept reading when a rather tall person took place in front of him, fondly observing Louis. It wasn't until that person eventually spoke up with his deep, raspy voice that Louis fell out of La La land.

"Hi, what's up?"

In front of him sat Harry, the guy with the chocolate brown curls and apparently a beautiful smile accompanied by two dimples. The presence of the lad, who hadn't left his head for the past couple of days, even if it just was to hate him, drove Louis speechless once again.

He chuckled. "Are you going to answer me or do you plan just sitting here looking cute all day?"

This made Louis's cheeks turn scarlet and his sight an even more alarming red. How dared that lad come here only two days after he humiliated him in front of half those people. Worse, how dared that lad still try to embarrass him again? Apparently Harry just didn't know any shame. There was no other explanation.

Louis just glared at him in response before turning his attention back to his book. This couldn't possibly be the same lad who'd brought him back home one his motorbike or the one who'd humiliated him at school. Impossible.

"Okay, I deserved that." Harry sighed, running his hand through his hair as his eyebrows furrowed. And no, Louis wasn't watching him, looking up in between his eyelashes. Not at all. He couldn't care less.

"Do you want another cuppa?" Harry eyed his empty one, "I'll get you one, 'kay?"

Five minutes later he came back with two steaming cups of tea and Nutella muffins, unfortunately enough Louis' favourite kind.

He took a seat and pushed the plate to the middle of the table so Louis could easily reach it, taking a bite of his muffin while doing so. His daemon jumped onto his lap and he petted her absentmindedly, fingers drifting through her fur.

"Uhm, yeah-" He spoke up.

"Do you always disturb people when they're trying to read? Or is that a new trait of your ever-changing personality?"

The sudden raise of self-confident cockiness surprised both Harry and Louis. The curly haired lad lifted one of the corners of his lips in a cheeky half smile.

"Only pixie boys wearing cute glasses, whom I definitely have to apologise to because of awful behaviour on my side."

Louis' ears turned red again after hearing the compliment, but he tried to keep his poker face steady.

"I'm listening," he mumbled.

"So, I know I might've been rude towards you, the other day-"

" _Might have been Rude_? You were a fucking arsehole, yeah?"

Harry as well as Louis were both startled by Siara's fall out. Even Louis wasn't used to his daemon talking so openly to other people.

"Uhm, yeah, you're totally right actually," Harry stuttered, eyes drifting from Louis, to his daemon, to back to Louis.

"Look," he started, giving the boy in front of him his most sincere expression, making Louis finally see the lad who'd saved him back in his eyes, "I know it sounds stupid and you won't believe me, but I did it to protect you. Really, you don't want to be associated with me."

"Yeah, sure," Siara breathed in his ear, "what a dramatic liar. Why does he even expect us to believe him."

Harry ran his hand through his hair again, obviously a tad upset by the subject.

"I'm just caught up in a livestyle, a business with no way out. Believe me, I've tried. I'm pretty important, meaning I have a couple of people under me, like those pigs of last time, but also a bunch of enemies trying to get to me or to my f-"

He interrupted himself, catching himself on something he shouldn't have said. So he changed words and continued again.

"Basically I didn't want anyone else to know about you because, how odd it should sound right now, I already care about you. Enough to know that I should avoid be seen with you. Not if I don't want anyone to get to me via you. I just don't want to do that to you. I don't want you to get hurt because of me."

Harry sighed sadly, "I'm sorry Louis. I'm sorry I humiliated you and that I acted like a fucking asshole. Will you please forgive me?"

Louis bit his lips, not looking at Harry's green eyes, knowing that they would only confuse him even more. Because yes, Louis was confused.

He clearly remembered the Harry, stoic and cold, from school, and that memory clearly told him to tell Harry to fuck himself and never talk to him again. 

But on the other side, he also remembered the gentle boy who had driven him home, whom could easily resemble the lad sitting in front of him. 

Ugh, he was just so bloody confusing!

"I- I don't know?" he muttered.

"Yes! You can just say all this things now, but next time you'll just-" Louis shut Siara up with a harsh look. He never acted with her like this, so she knew he was being serious now and shut her mouth, although still with reluctance. She did start a staring match with Harry's daemon though, who had laughed after Louis' reaction towards Siara.

"Look, you don't need to forgive me right now. Just, think about it okay?"

Louis nodded. Thinking, that he could do.

"And," Harry added, taking a peak at his watch "I have to go now, but I really want to make it up to you with a dinner at my place tonight. You can ask me questions that I promise I'll answer honestly, so you can get to know me better, trust me again."

Should Louis really do this? He'd experiences first handed how this boy could go from sweet to rude. And back again. He was still just a stranger. Didn't everyone say not to trust strangers? That definitely meant not to eat dinner at their place!

On the other hand, it really was a perfect occasion to get to know him better, to test the waters. Everyone deserved a second chance right? And the lad still hadn't mentioned Siara not been settled yet, even though he obviously knew about their condition. That should at least mean something? Right?

"I, alright. Dinner I can do," Louis brought out with a small, barely noticable smile.

Harry's grin in response could light up a room, dimples shamelessly on full display.

"Good! I'll pick you up at six thirty."

Siara suddenly broke her staring match to look offended at Louis. Had he really given in so easily?

"I really wish I could stay a bit longer, but I'm afraid I really have to go now," Harry took another glance at his watch and sighed when he took note of the time, "See you tonight, Pixie Boy. I'm looking forward to it."

After he took off, his daemon decided to give Louis a last sneaky smirk, "Harry adores Oscar Wilde," she purred, but then a _Nox!_ could be heard from Harry and she too left, wiggling her tail while doing so.

"Did you see that?" Siara breezed offended, "She even had the audacity to _wink_  at me!"

But Louis was too dazed, too startled because of what just had happened to even react.

Hmm, it seemed like he had a date that evening.

*

One hour and eight minutes later, Louis was back home, sprawled out on his bed. Siara had shifted into a dove for a change, sitting on his belly while fluttering her wings.

"I still don't get why you agreed to it," she whined, "He treated us like shit the other day. Haven't you forgotten that? Some empty words from his side aren't gonna change that." She tripled over to his stomach and plopped down onto it, wiggling in his shirt to get comfortable. Louis let her words sink in. She had a point saying Louis didn't have a valid reason to agree and meet up with Harry again. He sighed.

The ceiling lamp started to flicker a bit, bathing his room in darkness for a couple of seconds every time, before it seemed to have made up its mind and ended with illuminating again. How interesting was light actually. At first sight just a white shine, letting darkness disappear and colours come out. But then after years of examination, humans had come to the conclusion that the white light itself was the combination of colours, that it weren’t the objects holding the colours, but mere reflecting the right shade of light. Letting them be painted by the light.

Maybe Harry was a bit as the light, his different personalities all resembling different colours. But then, maybe everyone was a bit like light, because there wasn’t a single person who always acted the same way. Not a single person who held the same personality in talking to different people. So, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal. It just had to be Louis’ task’  to discover the package, the ‘white’, all of Harry, because he refused to believe that Harry was just an asshole. The lad was probably a lot more complicated.

“I don’t know,” he breathed, “I just felt something. Didn’t you? I mean, you surely must have too! It might not be the safest decision, but I want to know him better. He intrigues me, draws me in.”

“The only thing I felt was annoyance because of his bratty daemon,” Siara scoffed, but Louis knew better than to just take her for her word. She was his daemon after all.

"Oh come on, everyone surely deserves a second chance and he made it quite clear that he wanted to make up. Besides, he already explained his reasons behind his behaviour. I’m sure he’s not that bad of a guy.”

“And you just believe his sweet-talking?”

Louis shrugged, “I don’t know yet, that’s why I want to find out the real him. Like I said before, I just want to get to know him better, not marry him!”

The lad turned to his side where Siara had wandered off to and looked her in the eyes, “And don’t you think it’s nice that finally, finally someone is interested in me, us; That finally someone breaks this bland circle; That we can finally focus our attention on something else than our family problems?”

She blinked back, pulling up her now rabbit-nose, “Maybe you’re a bit right, but I’m still sceptical about him,” she paused for a bit, mumbling after a while, “And especially about his cocky daemon.”

Louis smiled softly because of her, taking a glance at his watch: 6:18. He surely had to get ready now. After jumping off his bed, he quickly grabbed a blue button-up and black skinny’s, took them to the bathroom and started to change. He slicked his hear up in a small quiff, finally ready to go. 

"Mom, Charles, I'm off!" he shouted, storming off the staircase.

"Back before midnight, honey," his mother answered, her voice coming from the teacher.

How lovely it was that his mother was in her New Man fase, meaning Louis didn't have to take care of his sisters all the time or worry about a lack of money. It also meant that she tried acting like the perfect housewife and loving mother again, giving Louis a whole set of rules that he didn't have six months ago.

After he grabbed his jacket, he wanted to take off, but his sister suddenly showed up standing in front of the door, preventing him from getting out. She gave him a suspicious look.

“Where are you going, Louis?”

“Just out with a friend,” he answered, “Don’t worry mom and Charles will take care of you, yeah? She said she was making lasagne.”

His sister still didn’t look glad with the fact that Louis was leaving, corners of her mouth dropped down, but she went out of the way, “Yes, she is. Said to Charles it was our grandmother’s recipe.”

They both snorted, knowing very good that their mom had probably just found the recipe on the internet, wanting to impress her new husband. Louis patted her on the head, ruffling her hair a bit.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible, okay?” And he opened the door, finally out of the house. He refused to call it a home as he knew for sure that they wouldn’t be living in there longer than a year, probably just a couple of months.

Harry wasn’t there yet, but he hadn’t wanted the lad to have rung the bell, wanting to keep him away from his family. Or his family from him, it didn’t matter. So he went over and plopped on the stairs in front of the house, staring up at the sky. The sky was clear, moon and a couple of stars on full display, bathing the American land in a yellow-white, magical gleam. It gave a feeling of invincibility, infinity.

Why had he actually agreed to meeting with Harry? He should be fully enjoying the time that his mum was still like this. Take advantage of the fact they had enough money again and get back inside to make good use of the big plasma TV and DVD collection. Really, Charles wasn’t even that bad of a stepfather. He was kind and spoke to him as an equal. Harry on the other hand, was an unpredictable enigma. Definitely not someone trustworthy, while that was the thing that Louis treasured the most in people. But maybe that was the thing with Harry. He wasn’t like anyone Louis had met before, mysterious, new, and for some reason he felt a connection, something that drew him to him. It wasn’t a rational decision to accept the invitation, he knew that, but any human needed some kind of adventure in their life, no?

Louis had only been sitting on the marble stairs of his house for five minutes, before a motorbike stopped in front of their gate, light illuminating the street. And, well, Louis should've known better than to have counted on a car.

He quickly got up to open the gate and sneak out, immediately shutting it behind him. In front of him stood Harry, the moon making him even more mysterious, creating shadows on his face, but it also made him even more beautiful. Louis' breath got taken away for a moment as he unsubtly admired the lad's presence. As soon as he caught himself staring, he turned his gaze away again, cheeks turning red.

"Hello, Pixie boy," Harry grinned knowingly, shifting his helmet to his other arm, still looking like a curly-haired Adonis, "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. What about you?"

Harry ignored the question, instead handed Louis another helmet and took a seat on the vehicle again, "Come, hop on. We can talk more later."

Siara had been making ugly faces to a cocky Nox, but as soon as Louis moved, she sprang up to climb via his trousers on his shoulder. When he had finally managed to get on, Siara had eventually hidden herself in his jacket. Louis knew that they would just take off, but he couldn't help himself to ask just one other thing that had been lingering in his mind.

"Why didn't you just send me your address? I could've gotten there by myself, wouldn't have given you so much trouble," he questioned, taking a good hold of Harry's waist.

"Like I said before, I don't want you wandering in that part of the city by yourself anymore.”

Afterwards he immediately started the motor to take off, preventing Louis to comment.  
Oh well, they still had the rest of the evening to talk.

 

*

 

The place Harry eventually stopped at, was different than Louis had imagined it to be. Not that he had actually made a good effort imagining Harry’s home, but still. It was situated in the ‘bad’ part of the city, not far away from where Louis had wandered last time. On the outside, it looked like any other house in the neighbourhood. A small, terraced house made of brownish bricks.

The inside, though, gave off a completely different vibe. The first thing coming to Louis’ mind was that he had entered another universe. A dimmed, light shone upon them while opening the door, giving them the first look of a modern interior, soft and dark greyish colours giving a surprisingly cosy feeling. The second thing striking his mind was how small, impersonal it was for a building housing a family. Where were his father’s shoes or his mother’s coats? Was there no one else home?  

“Do you live here by yourself?”

“Not really. Most of the time I still go to my parent's house, but yes, this place is mine. My dad gave it to me when I turned seventeen. Said it was better to stay close to my job, easier to run errands and stuff. He has always been a believer of keeping your private life and your job separated.”

Louis decided not to question it and just handed Harry his jacket so he could put it away.

“So what’s for dinner?” he asked, trying to make up conversation.

“I just have to finish a pasta with a tomato sauce. It’s a family recipe.” 

“You cook?”

Harry threw him a cheeky wink, “What can I say? I’m more than just a pretty face.”

That of course, made Siara dramatically roll her eyes, upon which Nox immediately reacted with a cheeky expression of her own. Afterwards she tripled after Harry who had already left to the kitchen. 

*

Seeing Harry cook was definitely something else, a new side of the lad revealed to him.   
  
Louis was sitting on the countertop, legs swinging like a child, and watching the curly haired boy add herbs and spices to a deliciously smelling pasta sauce. With funny remarks and clever puns, Louis was dominating their conversation, Harry only occasionally giving his input. In his hand was a glass of red wine of which he occasionally sipped, enjoying the rich flavour and fuzzy feeling it gave him. Even his daemon felt the effects of it as she was nuzzled in his lap, her earlier hostile behaviour already let down. What Louis didn't see was that every time Harry thought the boy wasn’t paying attention, being too enthusiastic because of a certain story, he gave him an endeared look.

“Dinner’s ready, Pixie boy,” Harry suddenly stated as he started to put pasta on two plates.

“Why do you actually call me that?” Louis asked, following the lad and taking a seat at the table. It was a question he had been dying to pose ever since Harry had used the nickname for the first time. 

"It just fits. You look like a pixie," he stated matter-of-factly, brushing the subject away by asking Louis about the food.   
  
In his turn, Louis just decided to let it go, secretly pleased as well as affronted with the explanation. So he told Harry just how much he loved the pasta sauce and praised him for being a good cook, which lead to a safe conversation about food and cooking.

*

It was only after dessert had been served, a small bowl of ice cream and chocolate sauce (that Louis innocently licked off his fingers, secretly knowing what it did to Harry), that they really started talking, not just innocent banter or statements about the weather.

“I can’t help but admire your accent,” Harry mentioned at one point, “are you British?”

Louis hesitated a bit before answering, “Originally, yes. But my mum liked to move a bit, so I haven’t lived there for a couple of years.” Even though Louis was definitely more than tipsy, on the edge of drunk, he still made clear with his body language that he didn’t want to elaborate or discuss the topic some more. He might have drunk a bit too much of that delicious red wine, but he still wanted to keep his secrets. He absolutely didn’t trust Harry well enough to reveal too much about himself.

Fortunately, Harry got on with it, so he didn’t ask further, just answered with a simple, “Oh, okay.”

It was silent for a bit, both boys knowing that the light mood for joking was gone. The two of them started to watch their daemons, laughing loudly as Siara got a sudden, small slap on her nose after she had crept towards Nox, wanting to touch her tail. She immediately ran back up on Louis’ shoulders, muttering profanities while the others, even her own human, were laughing Louis silently apologised, though, caressing her tiny kitten’s tail. Nox made use of the opportunity to throw Siara another cheeky smile, upon which she immediately stick her tongue out, making Louis and Harry even laugh harder.

“What does it say about us, that our daemons are getting along like this?” Harry grinned, wiping away the tears that had dared to fall out of his eyes as he had laughed too hard.

Afterwards, as the snickering had died down, they were quiet again, both not knowing what to say. The blue eyed boy suddenly felt brave so he decided to boldly mention on of the bigger elephants in the room, a secret that he’d unconsciously let Harry be part of. He had to mention it, had to know what the lad thought of it.

“So why haven’t you asked me about Siara’s condition yet?” He said, scratching his daemon behind her ear to comfort her.

“I didn’t deem it as my business.”

“But, it’s not normal,” Louis muttered bitterly, good mood gone, “You should have been wondering what was wrong with her, with me.”

Harry shrugged, trying to keep a neutral, reassuring face, “I don’t think it matters, it’s your business. You probably have an explanation for it, but I don’t need to know.”

“Well, the doctors all claim to have one,” Louis mumbled, feeling guilty for spoiling the mood, creating a cloud of awkward. He then looked at his phone and sighed, “I’m afraid I have to go. My mum said I have to get back before midnight.” He rolled his eyes in mock.

“I bet she cares a lot about you.”

“Yeah, well…” Louis answered vaguely, definitely not wanting to elaborate on  _that_ topic just yet.

“Come on, I’ll drive you back,” Harry stated, getting up to gather the plates, not knowing what he had said wrong to immediately having Louis’ mood drop again.

Louis stood up again to help him with the dishes.

*

The motorbike stopped at the same place where Harry had picked him up. Louis casually patted the lad’s back, too embarrassed to try something else and said, “Thank you for the ride and the dinner, Harry. It was lovely.” He then wanted to get off swiftly and walk back inside, desperately wanting to avoid an awkward good-bye. His well-plotted plan didn’t exactly work out in the end.

Instead of gracefully getting off, he fell off again, right on his bum. He could hear the snickers of Siara, pleased with how karma must have worked out after Louis had laughed with her own pain. Harry couldn’t help but smile too, but he also gave Louis his hand to pull him on his feet again, so that immediately earned him brownie points again. Louis greedily accepted the gesture to let Harry help him up.

What they probably both hadn’t expected was how close to each other it made them standing, chests and noses only an inch away from touching. He could easily notice the rise and fall of Harry’s chest, smelling the sweet scent of his breath coming out of his nose. The most spectacular was the view a bit above him, the light eyes of Harry watching him with a sudden gentleness. Louis’ breath hitched as he saw Harry slowly getting closer, getting in for a kiss. Adrenaline rushed through his veins as it became clear what was going to happen.

Their moment was unfortunately broken by very annoying daemon.

“Come on, Louis, I wanna go inside. I’m cold,” Siara whined, knowing exactly what she was doing, not even noticing the dirty look Nox gave her because of it, as she started to tug at the fabric around Louis’ leg. She did stuck her tongue out again the moment she had made sure Louis wasn’t looking.

“Uh, yeah,” he stuttered, blushing fervently as the situation came clear, “I’ll just get going now.”

With his cheeks still a bright scarlet, he hurried away, stumbling and tripling the whole way to the front door.

“See you later, Pixie boy. Thanks for the date,” he heard Harry laugh, before the sounds of a motor overpowered it.

The blush didn’t leave his face for the rest of the evening. Not even the moment when he noticed that he had forgotten his jacket at Harry’s house. Oh well, that made them equal, now he only had to find an opportunity to trade both their jackets. He hoped that Harry would be nicer than he had been last time he tried to give back his jacket. Although, Louis actually wouldn’t mind not giving back Harry’s jacket as he had been secretly sniffing and wearing the jacket at home all week. (Not that he would ever admit that.)

It was odd how much he had already been affected and dependant on the mysterious lad in such a short time. He didn’t even know what made him that interesting. Shouldn’t the dark reputation that he radiated off scare Louis away instead of drawing him in? Harry already knew so much about Louis, spending more time with him would only give away more, forcing him to trust him. Hadn’t he promised himself he would never trust a person completely anymore? That it would only backfire? Hadn’t he learnt from his past that you couldn’t even trust your family?

Ugh, he really should just stop thinking, and especially thinking ahead that much. They were just friends right now. Were they actually already friends? And what did the relation between their two daemons mean? How his, stubborn and proud Siara always bantered with Harry’s cocky leopard. Was it even just banter, or should he take it serious as fighting? That clearly didn’t promise any good! Oh, it was all just so confusing!

He huffed again, turning beneath his sheets, making a sleeping Siara accidentally fall off his belly. She muttered irritated as the brusque action had made her wake up, Louis, just go to sleep. What’re you mulling over again? You know I can feel your stress” She turned on her sigh, lying next to Louis and instantly fell asleep again, making a silent snoring sound.

“It’s nothing,” Louis responded anyway.

It took him another twenty minutes, but eventually he too, could let sleep take over and carry him to a world of dreams. Dreams which all contained the presence of a certain curly haired lad.

 


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Songs of the chapter: When you where young - The Killers  
> Mad about you - Hooverphonic  
> On top of the world - Imagine Dragons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I dont even know how to apologise for the wait. I might have forgotten that I had to write a thesis this year meaning I had 0 time to write. :/  
> Here it is. I'm sorry!  
> There's a little part from Harry's POV!

Harry didn't remember biology being so hard. It wasn’t like he would ever need the knowledge of how cells breathed and split. Sure, he knew, probably better than anyone else, how important education was and what happened if you didn't get a proper one, but at that moment, learning that stuff just felt useless.

"You're thinking about stopping, aren't you?" Nox opened one eye, just to accuse him.

"And what if I am," Harry scowled, "It's just one test. It won't even affect my grades too much if I fail this one."

"Well yeah, but from one comes two, come five, and before you know, you don't graduate."

Harry scoffed again, turning his attention back to the book nonetheless. As much as he hated it, he knew there was some truth hidden in that exaggerated exclamation of Nox. Harry hated when she was right.

"It's just... You've done so much already to get where you are now, Haz. Don't start slacking now."

Harry pat her paw, a sign of respect, and with a gentle smile, Nox closed her eyes again, letting her tail slowly sway in contentment.

Forty minutes, two chapters and one thousand frustrations later, Harry's phone lit up to make a ringing noise. Noticing the identity of the caller, his mood instantly dropped even lower.

"Hi, dad," he chipped, faking enthusiasm.

"Harold, I've got another little task for you."

Once again, straight to business. Not even a 'how are you'. Fortunately, Harry was already used to that.

"Yes, sure. What can I do for you?"

"You've got to give a visit to the same guys from last week again. If they don't give you the money this time, we'll have to take different measurements. But don't worry about that. I'll take care of it if it comes to that."

Harry knew his dad's 'different measurements'. He also knew that he sure as hell didn't want to be involved with them.

"Alright. Is there something else I should do too?"

"No that's it. Take Zayn with you. With each day passing, it's getting more and more dangerous on the streets for us. I'm practically making new enemies as we speak who would gladly take their anger out on you."

"Okay, I will."

"Thanks, Harold. Good luck."

A little click sound could be heard, signifying that the call had ended. The _good luck_ Harry had got was the closest it came to getting an _I love you_ , his dad not comfortable with signs of affection. Business was the only language he spoke.

"Looks like we're going out, Nox," he said as he grabbed his keys, putting on his black shoes. His daemon jumped gracefully on his shoulder.

"Looks like it, Haz."

*

Yes, he recalled his dad telling him to not walk alone on the streets, but Harry just felt like walking. He wanted to calmly inhale the fresh air with every step. He wanted the peace to think. Or maybe, he just wanted one simple act of rebellion. So, although he had to cross half of the bad part of the city to get to Zayn, he still decided to let his motor bike be and started walking. Besides, it was just a tad too early for the _bad_ guys to be on the streets yet.

He quickly texted Zayn, checking if he were free and letting him know about their task. Almost immediately did he get a reply, saying the lad was also up for it.

"A penny for your thoughts," Nox said out of nowhere.

"Not too much," Harry answered honestly, his hands in his pockets as he was walking on the pavement, "Just wishing that I didn't have to do all this anymore."

"You've been much more complaining about all this," Nox answered, cocking her head in suspicion, "Could it have something to do with that blue-eyed pixie you've become infatuated with?"

Harry thought about that. Could it? Had Louis opened his eyes, made him see what he had been missing all along?

"I don't know," he ended up sighing, "but I do know that I still want to quit this job of mine as soon as possible. I'll get out of this the moment I can. That hasn't changed."

"He is kinda cute though, Louis," She tried to hint again, having noticed Harry dodging the subject, "His daemon too, but more in a bratty way."

"Uhm, yes. He is."

"So?"

"So, what?"

"Do you like him?" She wiggled her eyebrows, that was, with the part of her fur where her eyebrows would be if she were a human.

"He's a very interesting lad and seems a loyal friend."

That wasn't really an answer to Nox' question, but she knew it was the best she would get. She knew her human was kind of reserved with his feelings, he probably hadn't yet sorted them all out himself, and that was okay. She was used to it.

*

Ten minutes later, they arrived at Zayn's place. Harry had walked the entire way and not once had he come across any kind of problems. No one had tried to threathen or kidnap or even pick-pocket him. His dad probably exaggerated a bit. Harry knocked on the door and almost instantly, it opened, revealing a tanned lad, his hair dripping wet and dressed in a towel, even his daemon was still dripping from her feathers.

"Hello Zayn, Laeta," Nox purred, "You two look so pretty and handsome today."

Zayn's daemon just gave her a big smile, and Harry too gave Nox a fond smile, used to her particular sense of humour.

"Hello Zayn," he spoke up himself.

"Come in, come in," he answered, rushing to the door behind Harry's back as he walked inside, "I just came out of the shower. I'll get dressed really quickly, don't worry."

"When was the last time you've done that quickly," Harry snorted. In the distant, he could heard Zayn make a sarcastic laughing noise, "You’d be surprised! Since we’ve got Luna, I can get dressed within a minute."

"So how're the girls doing?" Harry spoke up again, starting small talk.

"Good, Perrie took her to the zoo. She asked her mom to come along, said it would be a real _girls’ day out_ ," Zayn snorted. Afterwards, he was quiet for a bit, probably pulling a shirt over his head, before speaking up again, "Her daemon changes practically every minute. I was almost forgotten mine had even done that! It's so cute to see them interact too," he sighed happily, "Things are just really good right now. I don't know, it seems like the hardest part is over now."

"Good, good. I'm really glad to hear that," Harry answered back.

"That’s also thanks to you, Haz," Zayn had come back completely dressed, he was right having told Harry that he could manage to get dressed within a minute, "I owe you."

"I did what every friend would've done," Harry stated, smiling fondly.

"Yes, but still-"

"Just don't worry about it," Harry cut him off, not wanting to discuss emotional matters and he moved to the door again, "Let's get on with it and leave?"

Both their smiles vanished of their faces. It was time to get to business.

"Yes, let us go," Zayn stated.

 

*

 

Louis mostly kept his friendship - was it even a friendship already? Acquaintanceship then? - to himself, wanting to keep his private life separated from his school life separated from, well, his 'Harry-life'. That meant he didn't say one word about the mysterious curly haired guy to either Niall, or, his newly made friend, obviously only because Niall pushed them to be friends, wanting Louis to have more friends and deeming that guy as the perfect one, Liam.

It was the Thursday after their 'date-but-not-quite-really-date' that Harry was first mentioned in a conversation.

"...But then afterwards, she smiled at me, so I may still have a chance, right?" Niall looked at his friend for confirmation, but noticed that Louis wasn't even looking at him.

"Louis?"

"Hmm, what?" Louis quickly turned his attention to him again.

"Did you even hear one word of what I said?" Even Niall's baby chicken daemon looked disapproving at louis.

"Sure! You were talking about that Veronica girl and, uhm, well..." Louis tried to answer, obviously failing miserably.

"Just forget it," Niall huffed, "It's not like I can actually get her. What were you looking at that was so much more important than my non-existent love life?"

Louis quickly averted his gaze that had once again wandered to a certain curly haired lad leaning on a locker at the other end of the hallway. It seemed that Harry had decided to attend school that day. Blushing lightly, he hoped that Niall hadn't seen who he had been staring at. His hopes were futile, though.

"Dude, why were you looking at those Styles and Malik guys? You don't want them to catch you doing that. They're the epitome of trouble!"

"Why's that?" Louis asked curious, before trying to sneak another peak of Harry for only to notice that he and his friend had walked away already. The disappointing sight made him sigh inwardly.

"I heard from Lester that they're in drug business, that that's the reason they almost never show up at school, but still have enough money to get in this school. Jamie even told me that Styles' dad is a pimp _and_ a mob boss. Apparently the kid killed his first victim at the age of thirteen!"

"But those are just rumours," Louis immediately shot back, trying to ignore the presumptuous smirks Siara was throwing him, "I don't get why you just believe those stories."

"I didn't say I completely believe them," Niall tried to defend himself, "but to be honest, you've got to admit they're kind of scatchy. Wearing all that leather and those tattoos, driving those motorbikes, almost never attending school, telling no one about their private lives. They're obviously from the bad side of the city and still they succeeded to get in this private school! I'm not saying they're bad people, just, stay out of their way. Better safe than sorry."

"Yeah, sure," Louis answered, even though he knew he couldn’t keep that promise. It was already too late to not get involved, but Niall didn't know that. Luckily.

"Oh, well," Niall said, changing the subject, "Do you want to hang out with me and Liam tonight? My parents are out and gave me money to get pizza. I figured I could just as well invite you both to play some FIFA or GTA."

"Sure. Sounds good!"

And that brought an end to it.

*

Louis was supposed to go to business class, but he quite preferred staying in the toilets for just a bit more. It wasn't that he though business class was particularly boring- Wait. Scratch that. Louis actually did think business class was terribly boring and that was the only reason he had for not attending.

After washing his hands for the third time, he figured that he could just as well go as he didn't really have something better to do. He slacked while going to the classroom, but as he arrived, he noticed that he wasn't even late. In fact he came in right on time. This, of course, had some disadvantages.

The first being that as he arrived right on time, he still had to sit through the class for the whole hour. The second was that, while being just right on time was good, the other students usually came just a tad sooner, so the only available seats were two at the front, closest to the door. Louis absolutely, like most breathing creatures, hated sitting at the front. He already regretted his decision not to skip class.

Siara deemed it as the perfect opportunity to take another nap on his lap, finding school, apart from art or music classes, too boring to even bother trying to listen to the 'crap the teachers are always talking'. Her words, not Louis'. So Louis starts to gently scratch her behind her ear while taking a pen to take notes. At that very moment, the absolutely unthinkable happened. Okay, Louis might be too much of a drama queen, but still, he hadn't ever thought it would ever happen. So yeah, unthinkable.

Without a knock, the door opened, revealing a student casually barging in class. The teacher took a look at him and, even though he clearly had disrupted the first minute of her class and she actually hadn't even seen him before in her class, she let it go with just a scrunch of her eyebrows directed at him. Interesting.

The eyes of the student searched the room for an empty seat, sparkling as they noticed that the only free seat was next to none other than our main boy, Louis Tomlinson.

"Hi, Louis! I didn't know you took business class?" he whispered as he took a seat, the teacher already having continued to talk about supply and demand.

Louis snorted, "Shouldn't I be asking you that, Harry? I've been here the whole year, while this is your first time. Are you even allowed to go to this class?"

Harry chuckled, "Guess you're right. I am allowed to be here, though. I just preferred learning business in practice not theory, so I didn't bother to ever show up here."

"What made you change your mind all of a sudden?"

Harry threw him a cheeky smile, "Dunno, I was bored."

It became clear to Louis that the teacher could hear them whisper, but she never commented on it, just looked slightly bothered with a hint of, was that fear? She must believe those stories Niall had been telling him if her facial expression was anything to go by.

Louis decided he had to ask Harry about those stories and even though this wasn't the best time ever, he probably wouldn't get another opportunity soon so he figured he could just as well give it a shot. He leaned more to Harry's side so he could lower his voice. Louis didn't want to disturb the teacher even more.

"A friend of mine told me you were bad news, told me some stories and said that I should never, ever get involved with you," he whispered.

"Did you tell him you were already involved?"

Louis gave him a look, upon which Harry grinned, eyes glinting.

"So are you going to stay away now?" Harry asked afterwards, turning closer to Louis.

"I don't know. I don't take orders from just anyone, you know," he smiled, his gaze focused on the teacher.

Harry just gave him a cryptic, but pleased smile back, secretly more than relieved with Louis' answer.

"So, when are you actually planning to give me my jacket back?" he questioned out of the blue.

"I don't think it'll be anytime soon as the last time I wanted to do so, you treated me like a piece of crap!" Louis also didn't want to give the real reason away, that he liked to sniff the lingering scent of Harry every once in a while. That he liked wearing the too-big jacket as it reminded him of how bigger Harry actually was. It would only make him sound like a creepy stalker if he admitted that. Besides, Louis hadn't told anything but the truth. Only a fool would immediately try to give it after being treated like he had been.

"So that's what you were there," Harry muttered. He then sighed, face drained from the earlier amusement, "Look Louis, I am sorry for my behaviour, but I would do it again in a heartbeat."

Offended and confused, Louis made attempts to speak up, but Harry silenced him almost immediately to continue talking himself.

"There's a reason people tell such stories about me. Though it's not me in particular you should be afraid of, it would be better to stay away from me. There are too many guys out there who would gladly hurt someone like you, if they knew I'd taken a fond of you, to get to me or my father. The pigs you met already tried to hurt you and they were theoretically on our side."

He stopped, hesitating, trying to find the words, then sighed once again, "It would be very egoistic to not advise you to stay away from me."

"Lucky for me, I don't just take orders from anyone." Louis had a fearless air, seeming confident, almost arrogant, but under the surface Harry's words had made him doubt. Even though he would never admit it, Niall's stories had planted little seeds of fear in his mind and Harry had only fed those, creating a small vibe of terror Louis stubbornly tried to suppress.

Harry gave him a small, secret smile. A smile only meant for Louis' eyes to see, because, Louis was sure of this, if anyone else would see it, they would think he was an angel and try to send him back to heaven.

"I know it's bad and I shouldn't, but I'm actually very happy because of that," he eventually answered.

Louis was aware of the intensity in the way the curly haired was watching him, feeling oddly vulnerable. The blood once again coloured his cheeks.

"If you want your jacket back, it's just lying somewhere in my bedroom. You can come over any time to get it. I don't mind," he changed the subject. Only after he had noticed Harry's amusing smirked, it became clear to him that what he just had said, especially the reference to his bedroom, could be interpreted in a slightly different way than he had meant to.

"To just grab the jacket… Uhm, it wasn't a particular invitation to. I mean, not that I would mind, uhm, but like... I'll just shut up now." He made a motion to zip his mouth. His whole face had turned red, what only fed to Harry's amusement, as he snickerd out loud.

"Alright, Pixie Boy, I'll keep that in mind."

They were silent afterwards. Eventually, the teacher stated that class had ended and everyone could go. The commotion caused Siara to wake up. She was startled because of, though annoyed with, the sight of Harry.

"Wait, what are they doing here?" She yawned while simultaneously trying to glare at Harry and Nox. It made her only look more adorable.

Nox, who had too been napping, but on Harry's lap, just blinked in arrogance, yes according to Siara one could blink in an arrogant way, and told them they were both already going anyway, nudging Harry to leave the room.

The two lads told their goodbyes. As Louis was walking to his next class, he could only be glad that Siara hadn't heard their conversation. On the other side, he had never, ever, before hid something from his daemon. Ever. After all, she was kind of a part of him. So that would be a conversation to look forward to having. Not.

And if Louis spent the rest of his trip to the classroom thinking of Harry's eye lashes and how the lad had practically admitted he liked Louis (Louis! Plain, old Louis!) then that was something his daemon wouldn't know.

 

*

 

The bright sun shone on Louis' face, warming his skin and making him sleepy as he was lying on the dry grass, inhaling the scent of a sunny day. Niall had invited him to come to this pic-nic that a couple of friends of him had arranged. Of course, Louis should've known that when Niall said a couple of friends, he actually meant a whole bunch of them, so almost fifty of his peers were currently sitting or lying in the park, situated near an old bridge. It was, as Niall put it so nicely,  _their_ spot in the park. All students were chatting joyfully around Louis, eating whatever was brought. There were so many, but he only recognised Liam, Eleanor and a couple of people from his classes. 

Louis would be the last to say that they were all bad people, but he just didn't feel like socializing at the moment. Instead, he ignored them all and took his time to enjoy the warmth on his skin that the big star gave him, occasionally sipping from his soda.

Niall had taken out his guitar and some people and daemons as well as Siara were singing along to Wonderwall. For some odd reason, Louis' daemon was much chipper than himself that day. That occurred only once in a lifetime. Her tiny feet tripled as she ran circles around him, waggling her little bum along the beat of the song. It felt nice to see her in a good mood again. 

It was because of the music that Louis almost missed the buzzing of his phone. Hold on. Niall sat right next to him, his mum would usually just call him, creating a different sort of buzz and the few friends he’d made before, lived in different countries. They found it too expensive to text to America and only left facebook messages every fortnight instead. So, who was the mystery person that had texted him? The phone company?

_You don't seem like youre enjoying urself too much pixie boy_

Wait, what? Pixie boy? Only one person called him that, Harry. How had he got hold of Louis' number? And, more importantly, why did the text seem like Harry could see him. Was he stalking him? Louis peered around him, looking in every direction to try and catch dark brown curls and a dazzling smile. And, yes, he found him. A couple of yards away from the group, measured with the use of the sun, a bit to the east, near the end of the park stood a couple of youngsters.

They were huddled around their motor bikes, girls with too much make up and everybody wearing leather jackets even with the warm weather. All of them? Yes, Harry whose wicked grin to Louis could even be seen from that distance, was also wearing a leather jacket. It looked brand new and designer, probably having cost a fortune. Seemed like he had already giving up waiting for Louis to give his other one back. Oh, well. Louis didn't quite mind keeping it forever.

He rolled his eyes fondly, looking back at the screen to type his own answer, before changing Harry's contact name.

_Who is this and how did u get hold of my numbr?_

Had Harry texted himself his number when he'd put his own in Louis' phone? Louis noted to check his sent messages, but was to lazy to do it at the moment. The answer came almost instantly.

_Oh Pixie boy dont act like this. Im only concerned with ur well being. If ur friends bore you so much, you might need to search for better ones!_

Louis snorted, that boy really had some nerve!

_Well tell me if you see someone better then! and you still havent answered my question, How did you get hold of my number?_

"Who're you texting?" Siara asked curiously, trying to take a peek at the mobile phone, before crying out scandalized, trying to get a better look of the screen, "Are you texting Harry? Since when are you two texting? Why didn't I know that?" 

"Since now apparently," he said back. Siara nodded, seeming satisfied. Wow, even Harry couldn't rain on Siara's parade today. Oh how he loved when she was in a mood like this!

 _I have my sources ;) and well im always up for some fun ;) youd just have to ask_ Louis almost couldn't believe Harry had just sent that. What a cheeky bastard! Once again, he hadn't answered his first question. Louis would find out somehow, why don't he just wait.

"Hey, Lou," Niall poked him in the side, "Are you up for some soccer? The lads and I were thinking about playing."

"Yeah, sure," Louis smiled back. Football -not soccer, bloody Americans- happened to be one of his talents. He almost missed kicking the black-and-white ball around like he had done so many times before as a kid. No, he wouldn't let go this chance to play again. Not for a million years.

Before getting up he quickly wrote a message to Harry back. Afterwards, he took Siara on his shoulder to jog after the lads that had already left, pocketing the phone.

_Ill keep that in mind for future reference!_

Harry wasn't the only one who could be cheeky. 

 

*

 

The days that followed, Louis didn’t hear anything of Harry anymore. The inbox of his phone stayed empty but for the occasional text of his family members or school mates. The spot next to him in business class didn’t get occupied by Harry again, and the school halls seemed not to be tainted by black leather either.

Louis supposed it was a good thing. Harry was clearly a bad idea that had come to distract Louis and pull him into a world of darkness. He had finally found some good friends like Niall and Liam who were worth keeping. His schoolwork also didn’t need the distraction that the lad could’ve brought him, so his grades were grateful. Objectively, his life was better than ever before and who’d thought that America would’ve been able to do that?

Still, Louis felt like something was missing. The colours in the sky seemed too dull, the taste of his food too bland. Harry was a constant itch under his skin, someone he’d never thought he needed in the first place. A drug that had shown him how colourful life could be, if he’d just let it be. A drug he had started to want, started to need more and more every day. Where this signs of withdrawal?

As Harry was avoiding him, or just not taking initiative to spend time with Louis, the itch grew worse and worse every day. Even Siara, although she would never ever  _ever_  admit it, had become restless, uneasy, snapping at everything on some moments, being all quiet on others. Louis had promised himself before, that he wouldn’t go out and talk to Harry anymore, that he’d just take what he’d get from the lad, not forcing anything because he’d experienced from first-hand what would happen. He’d promised himself to be stubborn, not to give in anymore. But it took more and more effort every day to not just call up the lad. It took so much effort that Louis had thought multiple times of giving in already.

And well, maybe, Harry hadn’t abandoned him already. Maybe he hadn’t enough of him already, but was he thinking just the same as Louis. Maybe  _he_ wanted to play hard to get for once, letting Louis take initiative. Maybe Louis _should_ take initiative for once.

That particular thought kept running through his head, growing bigger and bigger like a bubble, until it got too big and just popped, making Louis give in to it. It was a Saturday evening as Louis had just come home, when the bubble eventually did pop. For one moment, Louis just though  _fuck it_  and decided to have a yolo-moment so he texted the curly haired boy. A stupid act of courage he probably wouldn’t have done if it weren’t for the fact that Niall had fed him alcohol while watching Captain America only an hour ago. But so be it. The most courageous acts in life are done while being drunk, or half-drunk in Louis’ case.

_You busy?_

To his great delight, the answer came lightning fast, as if Harry had been waiting with his mobile phone in his hand for a message from him.

_Not really? What about u?_

Louis knew he could still back out, but somewhere in his buzzing tipsy state, he knew that this was the right thing to do. The alcohol had made him into a self-indulgent person. It had woken up a lion inside of him that he fed with snippets of reckless behaviour. It made him decide that, to say it in a very exaggerated manner, the boring era of his live would finally end!  Harry would give his life color again like he’d done before, he would spice it up again. Louis had enough of living a safe life, he wanted to take risks. And as every great trip started with one small step, he started by doing this. _Me neither, what a coincidence! Maybe we should be not busy together?_

And that was it. He couldn’t go back, he only could wait for an answer.

_Be there in 5.x_

Well that was straightforward.

With every second ticking by Louis became more nervous, fidgeting with his hands, tugged at his sleeves or the hem of his shirt. He couldn’t chicken out anymore, it was too late for that already. Maybe he should’ve thought twice about it? Louis made a note to never make important decisions anymore while being half-drunk.

“Why’re you so nervous? You asked him to hang out yourself.”

“Why aren’t you annoyed that we’re hanging out? Don’t you hate them?” Louis snapped back at his daemon, copying her attitude.

“I don’t hate Harry, he’s actually quite kind most of the time,” she answered innocently, licking her raven coloured paw, before smoothing the fur behind her cat-ear with it, “Nor do I hate his daemon actually. She’s annoying, that I can give you, but hate is such a strong word.” She ended with a secretive smile, as if she knew all the answers of the universe, but refused to give them to Louis. Ugh, what an annoying brat.

“Your behaviour towards her might have fooled me,” Louis muttered.

Siara shrugged, or at least it looked like she tried to lift her feline shoulders, you can never be sure with daemon’s body language. “Well, you haven’t fooled me trying to change the subject. And don’t deny that you’re nervous, I can feel it through our bond.”

She then jumped off the table, right onto the window-sill. Louis hoped that when Siara finally settled, she would end up being a cat. Cats were awesome animals and they completely fit her personality of a sarcastic, lazy queen.

“You’re only expecting Harry, right?” she asked out of the blue, eyes peering outside into the dark night.

“Well, yes. Why? I can’t really invite Niall and Liam too, right?”

“No, it’s just,” she cocked her head, “Whose car is it then, that has just stopped in front of our house?”

Louis quickly came to take a look outside himself. A black car with tinted windows was parked in front of his house. Soon, the door opened to reveal two long legs followed by a mob of messy curls. Since when did Harry drive a car?

“Since when does he have a car?” Siara voiced his thoughts.

“I don’t know, but to be honest, I’m not complaining. I was getting tired of those long, noisy rides on his motor bike.”

“If you hadn’t been flirting with him that much, there wouldn’t have been so many rides on his bike for you to get sick of!”

Louis didn’t even react to that. Instead he rushed down stairs to silently open the door. His mother, step dad and sisters had all gone to bed ages ago and of course he didn’t want them to wake up. That would spoil every aspect of sneaking out.

As softly as he had opened the door, he closed it again when he finally stood outside.

“Well hello, pixie boy. Couldn’t wait one more second to see me?” Harry spoke up from right beside him, startling Louis.

Clutching his heart, the boy hissed, “Oh my god, Harry! You scared the living shit out of me. And no, I just didn’t want my parents to wake up from the noise you’d have made if you’d have knocked the door.”

“I see I’m already a bad influence on you as you’re already sneaking out and lying and shit,” Harry smiled, hands clasped behind his back as he stood on the balls of his feet like a little toddler.

“I didn’t lie to my mum! Not telling something is completely different from lying.”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night.” Harry said with a grin.

Louis cocked his eyebrow, giving him a defiant look back. It soon turned into glaring as the grin on Harry’s face didn’t disappear, but grew instead.

“You’re looking good.” Harry then stated out of the blue.

“Wait, what?”

“We haven’t seen each other for a while. Time has done you good, you’re looking good,” he shrugged, his grin not faltering, nor did his self-assured attitude.

“It has just been two weeks?”

Harry winked at him, leaving Louis’ question unanswered, before turning around and walking to his car.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to freeze my balls off here.”

That lad sure was an enigma, a puzzle that Louis wouldn’t be able to solve in a thousand years. But hey, a compliment was a compliment. The rush of warmth that had crept to his cheeks could acknowledge that.

“Where are we going?” He asked when he was finally seated in the car. Harry didn’t answer, but threw a pile of CD’s on him instead.

“Choose what you like best,” he dictated, before starting the engine.

“That didn’t answer his question, asshole,” Siara spoke up, at the same time as Louis gasped, “Oh my god! You’re a hipster?” That did get his attention.

“What? I’m –I’m not.” Harry answered bewildered.

“Yes you are!” Louis proclaimed, “The Lumineers, The 1975, Lana Del Rey, Foster The People. Behind all those punk clothes, there lies a tiny hipster heart!”

“I don’t wear punk clothes! And I’m not a hipster.”

“You so are!”

“Louis, just pick a damn CD,” Harry sighed defeated, “And you Nox, don’t look so smug,” he snapped at his daemon.

“I’m just saying, I told you, you were a hipster at heart,” Nox answered, before jumping on the back seat to take another nap. Felines had such good lives.

“Can someone please explain where we’re going now?” Siara growled as Louis put in a CD of Imagine Dragons, her reptile eyes glaring at the curly haired driver.

“What’s your plan for the night, Harry?” Louis asked to appease her.

“Don’t you want to be surprised?”

Couldn’t he for once give a straight answer? Why must that boy always be so cryptic? It drove Louis crazy, and his daemon even more so. He still stopped asking questions and started to sing along the CD instead. Harry quickly joined him with his deep bass that caused chills of pleasure running of Louis’ back.

Amazing how they could fall into this after having not seen each other for two weeks. Louis felt like he could finally breathe again. The two weeks seemed so dull next to this. Every friend he’d had until now seemed so dull next to Harry. Even though Niall had come closer than any one before, he couldn’t make Louis smile like Harry could. How was that even possible?

They ended up driving till the top of one of the hills surrounding the city, and sat down silently next to each other on the grass to watch the flickering lights of the city beneath them and the even more beautiful lights above them. The place held some sort of magical atmosphere. The air buzzed around them, but there was no tension. Louis felt completely at ease.

That was, until he noticed just how romantic this seemed. They only needed a basked containing bread and strawberries and it would look like a scene from a quality Rom-com. Did Harry know that this looked like a date. Had that been his intention all along, or was Louis reading wrongly into it?

He sighed and averted his gaze from the dazzling night sky to take a look at Harry, who was still looking at the stars, eyes full of something that seemed like hope. As if the stars spoke to him, as if he had figured out a pattern in the way they were scattered, telling him that there lied a bright future in front of him if he’d only believe in it.

And when Harry too turned his head to light up a smile at Louis, a smile so gentle and vulnerable, eyes shiny pools of black in the dark night, that was the moment when Louis finally figured it out. The boy had gone way too deep, penetrating his soul, his heart and settling in for good. He could feel it was already too late to shut him out. Losing him wouldn’t feel the same as losing one of his former friends. What others had tried a million times before, Harry had managed to do in such short time. Louis was already falling too deep for the seemingly rough boy with a golden heart. The cheeky lad who listened to hipster music and took Louis on adventures. The living paradox.

He didn’t know if he should be happy or sad with that realisation. It just was. He didn’t even know if his feelings, if he could call them feelings were romantically or platonic. Was this just a huge thing of admiring him? Would he mind if Harry had intended it to be a date.

Louis sighed, damning the stars. His thoughts were such a mess. But when he looked back to the curly haired lad, it suddenly didn’t seem so difficult any more. He stopped thinking. He just enjoyed, listening to the breathing of the lad next to him and the other sounds of the night. He still had time to worry of things.

So he did what everyone would do in that situation. With a small, content smile on his face, he started to sing softly.

_“'Cause I'm on top of the world, eh, I'm on top of the world, eh. Been waiting on this for a while now. Paying my dues to the dirt.”_


	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah - Ray Lamontagne

 

“Where are we?” Louis questioned, but it was to no avail. Harry refused to give any details.

 He looked up to the tall, old building. It clearly had been abandoned for a while. Some of the windows were broken and the walls seemed to be able to fall down any moment. Standing there almost felt unsafe to Louis.

It was the second time that week that Harry had come to his house, asking him to go on a little adventure. Louis had agreed in a heartbeat, craving the presence of the curly haired boy. Last week had been amazing. He’d seen Harry almost every day, even if it were for only five minutes when Louis came back from school. If they weren’t together they were constantly texting, though.

They were currently in the bad part of the city, as Niall would call it, and Harry was busy picking a lock of a fence that kept them from getting to the abandoned building. Siara kept giving Louis weird looks, but she didn’t complain one bit. Something had definitely changed in her attitude towards Harry.

Whit a soft click, the lock finally opened, giving Harry the opportunity to open the fence. He quickly grabbed Louis’ arm to tug him along, before locking the fence once again. An opened fence would look suspicious and it was a possibility that the police came to investigate.

Harry led them to the back of the building before lifting Louis up to push him through a broken window. He made quick work of following him, using his biceps to lift himself up. Obviously, Harry had come here numerous times before. Louis wanted to look around to take in his surroundings, but unfortunately it was pitch dark inside. Suddenly he felt something touching his back, so he cried out in surprise and fear, flinching instinctly forwards.

“Relax pixie boy,” Harry laughed, “It’s only me.” Afterwards he took a flash light out of his pockets and turned it on.

“Now follow me,” he said, but he didn’t even have to because he grabbed Louis’ hand to intertwine their fingers and tugged him along towards the stairs. Louis went along pliantly. They climbed the stairs silently, their hands still clasped together. It was a long trip, seeming endless, but eventually they arrived at the end of the stairs, a metal door.

This one didn’t even have a lock so Harry just kicked it open with his foot. The door gave in straight away. They could instantly feel the cold wind from outside, letting their hair dance around their faces.

“Look,” Harry said, grinning at Louis with the same twinkle in his eyes as last time when they had been gazing at the stars. He pointed at the roof in front of them, dragging Louis once again with him to get closer to the edge.

They got a clear image of the city. The lights of the buildings surrounding them lighting up the night together, something the stars couldn’t do that time because of the clouds that painted the sky. It was nevertheless a magical moment. The wind just a tad too frisk, but on the other hand Louis felt more alive because of it.

Louis looked at Harry, watching the other lad’s enthusiasm could make any day better. He seemed so much younger, almost like a child, as he admired the city at night. Harry got a bit closer to the edge of the building again, still leaving a foot between him and the edge.

“Don’t you feel invincible?” He asked, spreading his arms wide and closing his eyes, grin still plastered on his face. The wind playing with his clothes. Louis had always found Harry beautiful, but he currently almost looked unreal, like an angels just fallen from God’s empire. His happiness radiated from him.

Louis couldn’t help but wondering why the lad had brought him there, why he had brought them to the hill last time. It seemed like very personal spots, like Harry’s favourites. Louis was sure Harry came here to escape, to think or just to forget. Why did he want to share them with him? Could it be that he meant as much to him as Harry meant to him?

“Don’t you love it?” Harry asked again, looking back at Louis.

“I do.” He answered, smiling fondly at him, “It’s amazing.” Louis quickly grabbed Siara’s tail to take her away from the edge. She was such a daredevil. He tucked his daemon in his neck and stepped closer to where Harry was standing. Harry grabbed his hand as soon as possible, like it was an instinct already.

“Why did you bring me here? Or to the hills last time?” Louis asked softly, still taking in the beautiful surroundings.

“These are my favourite spots,” he answered immediately, “I- I don’t know. Coming here, it’s the only way for me to feel alive nowadays. Apart from being with you, of course.” He shrugged like he didn’t care anymore what he said, like he just hadn’t admitted being overly fond of Louis. It was so different from the calculated Harry Louis was used to. Different but not necessarily bad.

“Normally I don’t really feel one hundred percent like myself. I always have to please others, have to watch a mask. I have to be what everyone expects me to be. Here, just like with you, I can be myself. I wanted to share it with you.” He concluded.

Louis could see what he meant. Even though, he liked the other Harry, he saw the difference between the Harry that was always on edge and this carefree variant.

“I’m happy you wanted to share it with me,” Louis spoke up, trying to come up with ways to pay Harry back. He felt the urge to tell him his deepest secrets, share his most intimate spots.

And, maybe he read the signs all wrong, maybe Harry didn’t want this, hell he wasn’t even sure if he wanted it himself. Maybe it was just the energy around him, the feeling of being invincible that the night brought, or the twinkle in Harry’s eyes that crushed down all his principles. Maybe it was just fate that Louis brought to do it.

In the moment, Louis didn’t really think it through, he didn’t care why he wanted it. He just grabbed Harry’s face and brought him closer. He kissed him full on the mouth and could feel the energy of the moment in their kiss.

Louis had read so many times how first kisses were usually awful, but this, this, it broke down all the rules. As Harry placed his hand on the back of Louis’ head to bring him closer, his other arm resting on his hip, Louis couldn’t help but smile so brightly into the kiss. Harry didn’t taste like strawberries or mint or flowers like he’d heard other boys brag about how their girlfriends tasted, no, he tasted like Harry and that was a hundred times better.

If they had looked down, they would see their two daemons curled up in each other, drowsy from their human’s happiness and enjoying the presence of the other. It was unusual for daemons to do that so soon and even though Louis didn’t see it, he could almost feel how his and Harry’s soul were curled around each other.

He didn’t really know when they stopped kissing, but they ended up smiling at each other foreheads touching. Taking in Harry’s scent, he got almost drunk. What had he done all his life without kissing Harry, touching him. How had he survived? How would he survive if he couldn’t after tonight?

Louis stopped thinking about it and just enjoyed the magical moment. Tomorrow everything could be different, but today was what counted. Carpe diem and all that shit.

 *

Niall had been buggering Louis for weeks to join him to another party. Louis had refused every single time, as last time had made clear the party scene wasn’t really his cup of tea, but this time, Louis just felt like getting smashed. And a party obviously meant free booze.

The last two weeks, his mood had made a drastic change. The day after Harry and his first kiss he’d been ecstatic. The moment had felt like pure magic and even if he currently thought about it, he could feel a warm glint in his stomach.

It had been hard to let the lad in as Louis wasn’t fond of trusting people, breaking his walls down, but he’d got the feeling he’d get to know the lad. He thought He’d seen the real Harry Styles, not the mask he put on for everyone else.

Guess Louis had been wrong.

It all had started the day after. Louis had sent a casual text, thanking him for the night and telling him he hoped they could do it again. That hadn’t been too forward, right? Like, he hadn’t been too clingy? Or was his opinion that biased. He’d never gotten a text back.

Back then, Louis hadn’t thought it was important. Maybe his phone had broken down, or maybe he was too busy with other stuff? That was very likely after all.

It was only after he went back to school, that everything came clear. The first couple of days, Louis hadn’t spotted Harry anywhere on school grounds. Which wasn’t very odd per se, as the lad was known for his sporadic attendances. The day he did see Harry changed everything, or, well it made everything clear. Why he hadn’t answered him, why he hadn’t seen him anymore.

On Friday, just after his math class, he came across Zayn and Harry in the hallway. The two lads both clad in black leather jackets, as usual. Louis gave a small wave and uttered a breathy ‘ _hi_ ’, but got no response, they just walked past him.

If Harry would’ve been any other lad, Louis wouldn’t have minded. If he had not poured his heart out, shared his fucking first kiss with them, he wouldn’t mind. But the bastard was ignoring him once again, without a decent reason.

Louis felt used. Of course it wasn’t like he’d given his virginity to Harry, but on the other hand then he would understand. If they’d had sex, Louis would know he’d just been used for sex. Or was Harry some odd lad who collected first kisses? It drove Louis absolutely insane.

So that was why Louis was currently at his second party ever, full off rage and a desire to get completely pissed. He was already on his fifth beer and could feel the buzz changing into a more drunk feeling.

He couldn’t help but wishing he’d done this before. Which seventeen year old had only been to two parties? A One Republic’s song was playing and the music only added to Louis’ rush. Dancing in the middle of a mass of body’s he simply stopped to care. He didn’t care anymore about stupid luscious curls or leopard daemons or bright eyes full of mysteries. He let go the curly haired devil and just danced. 

Oh how good it felt doing the wrong thing. Oh how he felt alive, drowning in alcohol.

A couple of drinks and even more songs later, the sweat was already collecting on his back and even Siara was affected by the alcohol. Suddenly he could feel his back connecting to someone else. Looking up, he saw that it was an attractive black lad, who clearly wanted to have a good time with Louis.

The lad, overtaken by alcohol, just let his head fall back and swayed his hips on the beat of the music. When he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine the kisses that the lad was planting on his neck came from Harry.

Wait. Stop.

Less thinking about Harry. More thinking about Brad, or Ben that danced behind him. 

He got turned around as the music changed to an Arctic Monkey’s song and Boris’ hands found their way to Louis’ hips again, while his own ended up behind the other’s neck. Louis had never before behaved like this. Hell, he’d only had his first kiss two weeks ago, let alone danced dirtily with a lad.

It was in the middle of _Love me again_ , that the lad bend down to whisper something in his ear. Unfortunately, he never got to know what he’d wanted to say, because they got rudely interrupted by a black devil, or well that was how he looked like.

Louis dumbly watched him shout profanities at the lad that he’d been dancing with, too out of it to bother and interfere. Then his wrist got grabbed and Harry dragged him outside, rudely pushing through the mass of people to find a way out. Anger was written all over his face, which only spurred on Louis. 

How dared that lad be mad of him dancing with a stranger, when he had been ignoring him for two whole weeks. The situation was completely insane.

They eventually arrived at the infamous motorbike and Harry grabbed a bottle of water out of the hole under the seating.

“Here, drink up.” He commanded, anger seeping through his words.

“I don’t think so.” Louis answered sassily, refusing to do what he told him. Harry had no right to tell him what to do. Not anymore.

“You’re drunk.” He empathized and pushed the bottle towards Louis’ chest.

This time Louis grabbed it, but only because he wanted to have this conversation sober, or well as sober as possible, not for the reason to please Harry. And he wasn’t really keen on the thought of throwing up, that too. He still kept the scowl present on his face to make sure Harry knew he wasn’t happy with him.

The lad crossed his arms over his chest, watching Louis drink with furrowed eyebrows.

“Did you want to fuck him?” He asked out of the blue.

“God, Harry. We were just dancing. And so what if I’d wanted to have sex with him. At least, he acknowledged my presence.” 

Harry pulled a face at that, which made Louis smile inwardly. Good, he’d touched a vulnerable spot.

“Yeah, well. Don’t ever do that again.” He spoke with a stoic expression, teeth gritting. 

This got Louis completely mad. How dared he say that! Looking at him like Louis had cheated on him, like Louis was wrong and he was just an innocent curly angel. The fury took over and before he knew it, Louis started to shout. 

“How do you even dare to say that out loud? As far as I’m concerned I’m my own person and make my own decisions. I’m not yours, you don’t even want to be seen with me at school. You can just fuck yourself, because you’re not allowed to tell me what to do. You’ve made clear that you don’t want anything to do with me anyway, the last couple of weeks.” 

This finally caused Harry’s anger to leave, his jaw relaxing. Instead a hurt and apologetic expression came in its place, his eyes begging. And almost Louis got enchanted by the green pools, before he quickly struck back.

“Louis, I was just. I- I know it seems like a lame excuse, but I wanted to protect–“ 

“That bullshit might have worked the first time, but not any longer. You’re pathetic, Styles.”

“Louis, just listen to me,” He tried to gently grab Louis’ arm, trying to quieten him down as he was making a big scene, a scene he probably wouldn’t be making if he wasn’t drunk. Louis flinched away to keep his distance.

“Why would I listen to you? Just because you’ve decided that this particular moment I’m good enough for you. We both know that in a week, you’ll just completely ignore me again!” 

“Lou, I’m sorry. I know I handle it bad, but I’m just scared. I care about you. Like, too much actually.”

“Cut the crap, Styles.” He tried to walk away, having had enough of his bullshit, but Harry was soon to follow. 

“I know that I’m shit, Louis. And that I have no excuse, because once again I’ve behaved like a total arsehole and I don’t deserve an apology, but I just couldn’t watch you, no him taking advantage of you! You deserve better!”

“Like you, you mean?” Louis lifted an eyebrow.

“No, and that’s just the reason why–“ Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair out of desperation. “Louis, you don’t have to forgive me. I understand one hundred percent. Just, let me take you home. You’re drunk.”

“You know what that’s actually good idea. We’ll continue this when I’m not completely pissed. And at school, so I’ll see if I should even think about giving you that third chance.”

Louis didn’t even know why he said that. His mind told him that he should just let Harry go. The lad had hurt him enough already, he couldn’t just consider giving him another chance. His heart, however, that was a completely different story. His heart remembered the good moments, the moments that had made his life ten thousand times better. His heart hoped that in the end, maybe everything would be alright. His heart hoped, no it even thought, Harry had a good explanation. His heart longed for him.

Jumping on the motorbike, he decided that he would make a decision when sober. Alcohol probably clouded his thoughts, making everything more extreme. During the drive to his house, he couldn’t help but thinking that both their daemons had been quiet all along. Actually, now he thought of it, Siara had been neutral and quiet the last two weeks. What did it say that she wasn’t mad? He didn’t know it was even possible. Before, she would rant about every single detail. Did that mean something? She was his soul after all.

When he was finally tucked in, he could already feel a head ache coming up. That would be his first hangover ever, and it was bound to be a bad one. Ugh.

*

As predicted, Louis woke up with a throbbing head and the urge to throw up the contents of his stomach, which would consist of last night’s liquor. He knew he should’ve eaten something before going to sleep, but back then he was too tired to care. And confused. Especially confused.

Siara was nagging about his drinking history into his ear, feeling the consequences too as she was curled around Louis neck in Snake form. Luckily she quitted as soon as they had entered the kitchen, finding Louis' mum and her hummingbird daemon and greeted her with a soft  _good morning_. 

While putting on the kettle for a cup of tea, he tried to look as chipper as possible, so his mum wouldn’t notice his hangover. After all, she wasn’t used to him drinking and Louis wanted to keep it like that. She had enough troubles raising him and his siblings as well as making a living and pleasing her new husband, she didn’t need to worry about her son too.

Soon after, she left in a hurry for her weekend shift at the local hospital, leaving Louis alone at the kitchen table with only his daemon and his cup of lukewarm tea to keep him company. His sisters were currently attending their weekly Saturday morning lessons of piano, ballet or footy and Charles was God knew where. Sitting by himself, his thoughts couldn't help but drift towards the Harry debacle.

Harry. What should he do with him? And had Louis handled last night's situation well? Probably not, with an abundance of alcohol in his blood. He voiced his concerns, hoping Siara could clear up the clouded sky that was Harry.

"Si, what should I do about the Harry-thing?" He sighed, sipping from his cup.

She didn't answer immediately, so Louis wanted to poke her, thinking she'd fallen asleep again. It surprised him to see her gazing at the window all quietly, brooding on her answer.

Well, this was a first. Normally she was quick to give her opinion on any matter, even if it wasn't asked in the first place. Especially if it wasn't asked! Siara was stubborn and persistent, with a quick tongue. Seeing her so quiet like this, _thinking_ before opining her mouth. Can you imagine? It surprised Louis beyond compare and, if he was completely honest, it worried him a bit.

"Siara?" He asked again.

"I- I don't know. I think?" She spoke up after a while, soon elaborating, "On one hand I want to say that I'm mad, completely furious with him. I want to tell you that you should stay away from him, no matter what. That I was right and we should've never got involved with the arsehole. He's fooled you twice now, so he's not worthy of your attention anymore."

"But on the other hand?" Louis ushered, curious as what she would say.

She spontaneously changed into a hedgehog, and Louis could feel her wave of irritation, knowing that she hated that she hadn't settled yet. Louis knew that he was probably to blame for, so it sparked a bit of guilt in him.

His daemon quickly recovered and begun to think over her words. "On the other hand," she started carefully, "I think I... I don't want you to? Or for him to leave?"

Louis watched her silently, hoping she would explain.

"I know it's not a rational thought, but I'll explain," She continued, like she had read Louis' thoughts, "It's the first time that I've bonded so well with a daemon since, well, your sisters'. And even then it's not like this. Niall's daemon is one of the better one's out there and I still wouldn't want to talk to it for more than ten minutes. It's, I don't know, Nox and I have bonded. And the best thing to do would be to avoid Harry at all costs now, but I just don't want you to." She ended her speech pouting. Only she would be able to pout in hedgehog form.

"So, what _should_ I do?" Louis asked in the end, having taken in her words. He sagged back in his chair, deciding that he hated making decisions like this. Why couldn't he just live his life and be happy without thinking everything through?

"I personally think you should hear him out," Siara told him, "He probably has some problems, secrets, but he's not keen to open up to just anybody. He's told you bits and parts about his life, but no major things right? Like, he never really talks about his family, so he's probably having some difficulties, right? Maybe they're really homophobic? Like, that would be a good reason to avoid any possible love interests."

"But if that was the truth, he definitely could have handled the situation better," Louis muttered, "He could've just told us and not been a complete arse about it."

"He's only human," Siara reminded him, "And contrary to daemons, humans make mistakes. That's why Nox behaved like a decent daemon," she answered cheekily and went to sit on his head, grabbing his hair with her little paws to pull her up.

She was completely right and acting real mature. It felt like Louis and she were like yin and yang, constantly balanced. When Louis would act all immature, she would keep her head clear and vice versa. Together they were a dream team, like probably all other humans with their daemons, but still.

"I fucking hate it when you're being all smart like this," Louis mumbled under his breath, "I want the immature Siara back, complaining about what a twat the curly haired arse is."

"I'll start complaining about him again, if you want. I just won't say anything bad about Nox. She's ace. Now, go to the living room, I want to watch some reruns of Skins." She patted on his head, hoping he would move.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna do some homework," Louis answered, getting up and moving to the staircase. He did want to have the last word, after all.

(They ended up watching Breaking Bad on his laptop till four 'O clock, when Siara finally allowed him to do his homework as she napped on his lap. Louis didn't stand a chance when it came to his daemon.)


End file.
